Saturday, September 13, 2008

One of the main objectives of this blog is to challenge artisans to expand their creative expressions by considering new techniques and new materials. F3 Designshow you can make wonderful jewelry even from construction materials. In their case, they use guywire, the metal rope or cable used to stabilise cellphone towers, radio masts, wind turbines, utility poles and so on.

The result is some of the coolest unisex jewelry I have seen. Their Guywire Collection - "Bold Body Wear," uses stainless steel guywires and copper. Stylish and durable - the designs definitely offer a very "guy" look. You can purchase their distinctive jewelry from endemicworld.com.

The designs use different thicknesses of guywire and sometimes with multiple strands. The copper sections hide the joins as well as give a lovely metallic contrast to the stainless steel wires.

F3 Design is based in Christchurch, New Zealand. What is also remarkable and unusual is that the jewelry line was created by an entire artistic family, the Wright-Stows. The parents, Angela and Stuart, are product designers who also run the Little River Gallery where they support other artists and designers. Son, Pippin, works on architectural and design projects. Daughter, Ella studied sculpture and contributes to the business. The family that "beads" together, stays together!

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You could say Pearl was born to be a jewelry designer with a name like that! She is the author of The Beading Gem's Journal now simply called The Beading Gem, a popular jewelry making, inspirational and how-to website. Subscribe for your daily dose of tips and tutorials and more

What a cool idea! You are right we need to think "outside the box" as they say. While some such ideas remind me of scout projects, they need not be like that. Keep giving us those ideas. Thanks, Pearl and F3 Designs.